Thread by @Nakhthor

I argue that in 167-4 BC the Seleukid colony in Judaea was refounded and Jerusalem (including Temple) was assigned to it; that this was reversed upon petition by local elites. These would be the events behind Hanukkah. The arguments are technical
marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/re-examining-h…

More here:
academia.edu/11446845/Argum…

To summarize / add to the argument:
1. Book of Daniel (contemporary source) makes clear that Jewish cult at the Temple was affected by the Seleukid state.

2. The Books of Maccabees (I-II), abbreviated and retranslated versions of longer works, contain both unparalleled elements (religious persecution) and paralleled ones (that point to a "synoikism", i.e. a city refoundation with political and religious consequences)

Maccabees also mention
a. inspection ofTemple finances, paralleled in Seleukid documents
b. foundation of city Antiocheia by Jewish elites, paralleled by inscription in Asia Minor
c. restoration of Temple, recorded in "paper trail" showing role of local elites (not rebels)

Hence:
1. 170s Temple under direct Seleukid admin
2. Foundation of "Antiocheia" by Jews next to Temple-state Jerusalem
3. 167 Refoundation of ?Antiocheia by Seleukids after rebellion, Temple-state abolished, Temple in new city
4. Reversal of decsion upon petition by Menelaos

New example of "double city" (Hellenistic foundation next to old city) at Pessinous: P. Thonemann, ZPE 2015
Arguing for cultural and narrative shaping of the Maccabean narrative as charter myth of the later Hasmonean dynasty: S. Honigmann's book and articles

The documents or some of them, as I organized them a long time ago, are here:
academia.edu/2393828/Docume…

The arguments are technical & critical, based on those elements of the Maccabean narrative that can be paralleled in other sources. Honigmann explains the cultural and memory work that was made sense of the administrative event.

A crucial part in the argument is played by inscriptions:
1. Seleukid documents re. administration of religious finances (in Asia Minor and now S. Levant !)
2. Royal correspondance re. petition-and-response
3. Documents on end of autonomy= loss of ethnic identity & shrines.

4. Specifically, documents about restoration of autonomy show that temples were given back to resurrected communities: one example from ca. 188 BCE Asia Minor, and one from C1st BCE Mytilene, the statue base for the local leader Theophanes who got back "autonomy and the shrines"

The statue base was later transported to Constantinople (Hippodrome area) were it was excavated. Published by L, Robert (CRAI 1969 natch). Now in the Istanbul Mueum courtyard next to the café ! I thank Prof. Mustafa Sayar for showing it to me.

I laid out some of the argument in a paper in S. Benoit's Mélanges for Fergus Millar:
academia.edu/41370840/Relir…

but rethought them in the Marginalia piece (published thanks to T. M. Law)

Some more thoughts in a piece in the (huge) volume in memory of the late, great Getzel Cohen, just published by R. Oetjen.

New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics. Studies in Honor of Getzel M. Cohen
Ed. R. Oetjen
Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 355

I should add that Fergus Millar disagreed with this whole line of argument (as he told me in a long letter)

but Fergus, typically, encouraged me to continue with my argument and develop it